'Controlling' Sheffield man jailed for attacking former partner

A Sheffield man, who subjected his girlfriend to almost a year of controlling and violent behaviour during which she suffered a fractured jaw and partial loss of vision in one eye, has been jailed for over two years.

A Sheffield man, who subjected his girlfriend to almost a year of controlling and violent behaviour during which she suffered a fractured jaw and partial loss of vision in one eye, has been jailed for over two years.

Sheffield Crown Court heard how when the woman entered into a relationship with Adam Mulligan in Autumn 2016 things between the pair were 'perfectly normal,' said Martin Robertshaw, prosecuting.

Mr Robertshaw said that by the second month of the relationship Mulligan, 26, had started to exhibit signs of controlling behaviour that started with him wanting to know who she was socialising with and progressed to him dictating what clothes she could and could not wear.

Mulligan began physically attacking the woman and the court was told how he attacker her a number of times, with the effects ranging from a split lip to a fractured jaw, which required surgery.

Mr Robertshaw said: "The pattern was always the same - he would tell he was sorry, that he would change but the same thing would happen again."

The court was told how Mulligan sent the woman abusive text messages on a number of occasions, in which he threatened to throw acid on her, to hurt her, to hurt her mother or to hurt himself if they did not reconcile.

"He was trying to stop her leaving, to stop her from reporting him," added Mr Robertshaw.

The pair split for a few months, during which time Mulligan rekindled a relationship with his former partner of nine-years.

The campaign of abuse finally came to a head on November 4 last year, after the complainant agreed to spend the evening with him and the pair ended up at a nightclub in Sheffield, the court heard.

After the complainant was involved in an altercation with a group of women at the club, the pair went back to Mulligan's house and things descended into violence a short time later.

The court heard how Mulligan punched her several times to the face, before taking her to her father's house and told her to shower and to change out of her blood-soaked clothes.

The injuries caused during this account left the woman with 20 per cent vision in one of her eyes.

When interviewed by the police, Mulligan initially said that the woman sustained her injuries at the hands of the women she had fought with at the nightclub, but eventually pleaded guilty to one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and to another of controlling and coercive behaviour.

Defending, James Baird, described the couple's relationship as 'toxic' and said both parties drank to excess with Mulligan also dabbling in drug-use.

"He was horrible at the time, and never wants to be like that again," said Mr Baird, adding Mulligan had been using his time on remand to try and turn his life around through his participation in courses such as the better relationships programme.

Judge Paul Watson QC sentenced Mulligan to 30 months in prison, and made him the subject of an indefinite restraining order against the complainant in the case.

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